“No problem.” Lester sat down in a rusty old metal chair. “I heard that Henrietta wouldn’t help y’all because the way the church women has set their heels against Allie and Lizzy Logan bein’ in their club thing. Crazy old farts. Ain’t a one of them wearin’ halos.”
“Well”—Toby winked at Lester—“Henrietta said she wouldn’t make a phone call for us, but Blake and Allie showed up pretty quick after she left. Don’t go spreadin’ that around, because I wouldn’t want to get her in trouble with the ladies’ group. We were so happy that someone called Blake that we sure wouldn’t want to stir anything up. I hear that she and Irene Miller, Lizzy’s grandma, were real good friends back before Granny got dementia. Maybe she felt beholden to Lizzy because of that.”
Constant scraping noise combined with the loud music playing on the roof of the store made Lizzy nervous as a hooker in a church revival. Stormy curled around her four kittens in her new laundry basket bed behind the checkout counter as if she had no fears at all. Nothing bothered the cat, but then she’d carried her babies to safety in the midst of a hell of a storm. Shingles coming down off the roof and Conway Twitty singing so loud that the folks down at Nadine’s could hear it wouldn’t faze Stormy.
Lizzy was busy moving all the sales merchandise onto a smaller rack and marking them down to eighty percent off, when Dora June and Ruby pushed their way into the store. Up on the roof Conway was belting out “Goodbye Time.” Lizzy wished that she could wave at the two old gals and tell them good-bye without having to talk to them.
Rumors had covered the town worse than all that paper stuck to the trees, but Lizzy pasted on her best smile and pointed at the rack of sweatshirts, western shirts, and hoodies. “Y’all should take a look at this. It’ll go fast at this price.”
Ruby hitched up her jeans and sniffed the air dramatically. “We’re not here to shop.”
Had Stormy passed gas again? It sure looked like Ruby had smelled something horrible. Maybe the cat food caused flatulence. She made a mental note to check the effects of the stuff. It could be that, after a diet of mice and whatever she could scrounge up in the alleys, the cat couldn’t tolerate that high-dollar canned food.
“We’re here for a straight answer. Did Henrietta break her vow and make a phone call for you?” Dora June glared at Lizzy.
“What makes you think that she did?”
“We heard some news to that effect,” Ruby said.
“And if she did?”
Dora June crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Lizzy. “Then we will excommunicate her from the ladies’ group.”
“Shit. Whatever happened to spreading Christian kindness? We were stuck down there in a ditch. She showed up and we asked for help. Why would you treat your good friend like that? Y’all have all three been friends for years and were friends with my granny before her mind got bad. I can’t believe the way you are acting. Before long there won’t be enough women to make up a club. Come on, lay down your heavy burden of hate and stop this shit,” Lizzy said.
“Did Henrietta call Blake?” Dora June asked again, this time through clenched teeth.
“I was not in the car with Henrietta. What she did or did not do is between her and God and really not a damn bit of your business.” Lizzy picked up the black kitten and held it close to her chest. It stared up at her with bright blue eyes and purred when she started to pet it.
“I hate cats,” Ruby said.
“I love them,” Lizzy said coldly.
“That’s all you’re going to tell us about Henrietta?” Dora June snapped.
“That’s all I can tell you. If she was a Good Samaritan, I hope God puts an extra jewel in her crown. If she didn’t call, then that’s on her. If y’all want to throw her out of the ladies’ group, then tell her she’s welcome at Audrey’s on Wednesday nights for supper. That way she won’t be lonely while y’all are down at the church getting your weekly dose of self-righteousness.”
Dora June shook her finger at Lizzy. “You are an abomination unto the Lord.”
“Maybe so but I’ll talk to him tonight about it and we’ll work out my problems. I don’t need your help, but I did need Henrietta’s yesterday morning. And if she made a simple call, then I’ll be glad to thank her.” Lizzy put the kitten in the basket with the others. When she straightened up the women were on their way out the door and Blake Shelton’s voice singing, “I Still Got a Finger,” filtered down through the hole in the roof.
Lizzy shook her fanny to the beat of the music and held her hands above her head to keep from using her tallest finger to show Dora June and Ruby what she thought of them. After all, they had been her grandmother’s friends and she should respect that part of their past. Besides, there was hope that they would see the light at the end of the tunnel before the train hit them head on.
“This music is pretty dang good,” she told Stormy. “Nothing against Conway. He’s a king in my books, but I do love some Blake Shelton.”
When the song ended, she slipped out the back door and walked all the way to the other side of the alley so she could see what was going on up there on the roof. She was amazed at the sight. It looked like a whole crew of gangly monkeys crawling around on her roof. No wonder it was so noisy inside the store.
“What do you think?” Allie climbed down the ladder with a nail gun in her hand.
“I think you’ll have it done today at that rate. Where’d those kids come from?”
“Deke rounded up a dozen of them to help take care of this job and the one I’ve got lined up next,” Allie said.
“And that would be Herman’s new hay barn, right?”
Allie put the tool away in the back of her truck and pulled out another one. “Battery needs recharging. I’ll take it into the store and plug it up soon as I take this one up to Deke. And yes, it is Herman’s new barn. That’s all I’ve got on the docket right now so after that’s done I’m going to start on my own house. It needs painting on the outside and some wood replaced around a few windows.”
“I won’t worry so much about you since you’ve got help. Come on in the shop. Deke can run the crew and we’ll have a soda. You can play with the kittens and…” Lizzy paused.
“And what?” Allie eyed her.
“I need to talk and I’m scared.”
Allie yelled up from the bottom of the ladder. “Deke, send one of the boys down to get this. I’m going into the store for a little while.”
He gave her a thumbs-up sign and tapped a kid on the shoulder.
Allie looped her arm in Lizzy’s and together they tiptoed around the debris and twisted metal still lying everywhere between the alley and the store. “It looks like to me, if the tornado wanted to chew all this up, it could take it to a landfill somewhere and spit it out. Doesn’t seem fair that it tears it up and leaves it layin’ right here. Please tell me you haven’t been talking to Mitch and y’all are getting back together.”
“He’s married,” Lizzy said.
“No, he’s not. He will be over July Fourth weekend but not yet. He and that woman aren’t really married yet. Lucy told me that she won’t marry him until her daddy can perform the ceremony and her mama can be at the wedding. Mitch’s mama spread that rumor about him getting married so folks wouldn’t think he and that woman were living together.”
Lizzy went straight to her office, opened the refrigerator, and took out two cans of soda. She ran one over her forehead before she carried them to the counter where Allie sat on the floor with all four kittens in her lap.
“Are you sure?” Lizzy asked. “Which one is a rumor and which is truth?”
“I’m sure. Wanda couldn’t bear the idea of them living down there together in that villa, so she and Mitch cooked up the story that they were already married. The people in that area think that they were married when they arrived.” She jerked the tab off the top of the soda can and took a long drink. “But they’re really planning a ceremony with only family when they fly in for that weekend. Then Sun
day the church is cooking up a reception and shower. In between, they will be here in Dry Creek for our festival.”
“A lie like that is starting off a ministry on a sour note if you ask me, which no one did, but Mitch isn’t even a blip on my radar anymore.” Lizzy touched her soda can to Allie’s in a toast. “May they be happy, wealthy, and in love all their married life.”
“Well, that’s real generous of you considering what he put you through. So if that’s not why you are scared, then what is? If it’s me on the roof, I’m not even big enough to be off balance yet, Lizzy. And I’m not stopping what I do because I love my work. I’d go crazy without it.”
Lizzy sat down in the floor beside the laundry basket and rubbed Stormy’s fur. “I worry about you but I understand. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself with this store.”
Why couldn’t God have shared the need to vent, to talk matter of the heart to death, to take hours to make a decision, and then change their minds with the male species? Why did he have to put the entire burden of all that upon the female gender? Add in the inability to get the words formed so they wouldn’t sound so silly with the absolute need to say them, and dammit, life was not fair.
“Spit it out,” Allie said.
“I really, really like Toby.”
There she’d said it, but she already wished she could cram the words back into her mouth. It didn’t bring a bit of relief.
“I know,” Allie said softly.
“How?”
“The way your eyes yearn for him when he’s anywhere around or when his name is mentioned. I did the same thing with Blake, but it’s not the same for you and Toby, Lizzy.”
“Why?”
Allie put the kittens back into the basket where they began to bite at anything that moved, whether it was their tails or their littermates. “I was a long time out of my relationship with Riley. Blake and I were pretty much on the same page about what we wanted in the long picture. He was wild but down deep he wanted to settle down. Toby is a player, plain and simple. It’s not that he won’t settle down with one woman. It’s more that he can’t.”
“Then you are saying a pretend relationship is the best I can hope for?”
Allie nodded. “Deke will settle before Toby. Do you see that ever happening?”
Lizzy opened her mouth to disagree but snapped it shut before she blurted out the whole story about the fling they’d had and the very real flirting that had gone on in the bathroom door the day before. Allie was right and Lizzy knew she should listen to her older sister for once.
“They’ll sell snow cones in hell before Deke quits his way of life. There’s not a woman alive who could drag him to the altar. Not even with a loaded shotgun.” Lizzy laughed and changed the subject. “The way those kids are working, the roof is going to be done by quittin’ time.”
Allie sipped at her soda. “And I’m willin’ to sit right here and let them finish it.”
“Hiring all that help sure cuts into your profit.” Lizzy tossed her empty can into the trash can. It made a loud clanging noise when it hit bottom, and all four kittens buried their little faces into their mama’s belly.
“Reminds me of three little girls who always hung on their mama’s apron strings when they were scared.” Lizzy laughed.
“Or their granny’s,” Allie agreed. “Maybe you’ve got three sisters and a brother in that basket.”
“Yep, Allie, Lizzy, Fiona, and Deke. I should name them that if there’s three girls and a boy. I never can tell if they are boys or girls. Check for me. You’ve always been good at that.”
Allie picked up each kitten and flipped it over on its belly. “You’ve got a boy here with this yellow one and here’s another boy and yep, all the yellow ones are boy kitties. Let me look at the black one.”
Fiona handed over the ball of fur and Allie turned it over. “A girl. Poor little thing will have to contend with three mean old brothers. Are you naming her Fiona?”
Lizzy nodded. “She’ll have to have a good strong name. I’ll call her Fefe for short. Help me name the boys.”
“Let’s give them our favorite cowboys’ names,” Allie said.
“Raylan is that cocky little guy who hisses when you pick him up.” Lizzy laughed.
“And this fat feller is Hoss from Bonanza,” Allie said.
“Only one left? Think we ought to name him Duke?” Lizzy asked.
“Perfect. We’ve got Hoss, Raylan, Duke, and Fiona to keep them all on their toes. I miss her so much. I want three daughters so my girls will have sisters like we’ve always had,” Allie said.
“I thought this was going to be an only child because she’s made you nauseous when you smell chili.” Lizzy picked up Hoss and buried her nose in his thick yellow fur.
“Oh, no, never. This baby will need a sister to help her name her kittens and to confide in when she likes a boy.” Allie grinned.
Rich aromas of chocolate mixed with barbecue met Toby when he entered the house through the back door that evening. Big black clouds hovered down in the southwest, but the sky didn’t have that eerie quiet feeling that preceded a tornado. He felt good about the day’s work. Perhaps clearing land wasn’t as exciting as his days on the rodeo circuit, but he loved seeing the results. With the cash he’d earned in those four years of chasing the rodeo around the country he’d been able to buy the High Roller ranch down in Muenster. It had been nothing but weeds, cow tongue cactus, and mesquite, but he’d put a lot of hard work into it and now it was a prosperous ranch that had brought in enough money to more than pay for his third of the Lucky Penny.
“Please tell me that is your famous pulled-pork barbecue.” He clamped a hand on Blake’s shoulder. “And do I smell chocolate cake? Lord, I think even this old scar on my face is aching tonight. I feel like I’m looking eighty in the eye rather than thirty.”
“Twenty-seven is not close to looking thirty in the eye, but I do not doubt for one minute that you have aches and pains from your rodeo days,” Blake said. “It’s time for you to settle down.”
“Not yet, brother. Maybe after I’m thirty, but definitely not now. This damn celibacy thing is teaching me right quick that I was born to raise hell not kids,” Toby said. “I do smell chocolate, right?” He changed the subject.
“It’s Mama’s sheet cake recipe,” Allie said. “We’ll eat it warm with a scoop of ice cream on top for dessert.”
“Now this is the life. Comin’ back to good home-cooked food after a day out there clearing land and listenin’ to country music with old Blue perched up there in the seat with me. How’s the roofin’ business, Allie?” Toby went to the sink and washed his hands. “I’ll set the table. My mouth is watering just thinking about pulled pork sandwiches and fried potatoes.”
“You see fried potatoes?” Blake asked.
“Please tell me you’ve got them in the oven keeping warm.”
“Cake is in the oven, but the potatoes are in the microwave,” Allie said. “And to answer your question, those boys have got the roof on the store. Deke is a slave driver. He swears we’ll have Lizzy’s back room done by Thursday at quittin’ time so the kids can have a three-day weekend to waste their money.”
“I remember those days very well,” Toby said. “We couldn’t wait to get old enough to take our money to the bar, could we, Blake?”
“I’m glad I’m past that time in my life.” Blake brushed a kiss across Allie’s lips as he carried the potatoes to the table.
Toby beat down the streak of jealousy. It wasn’t the first time in his life that Toby had been jealous of his older brother, Blake. But it had been a long time since the green-eyed monster had hit him as hard as it did that evening.
Can’t have your cake and eat it, too.
“What’s on your mind?” Blake touched him on the shoulder.
“Arguing with myself,” Toby answered honestly.
“You know what Jerry Clower said about that. When you start arguing with what you know is right, you’re about to
mess up real bad. What’s the problem?”
“Something I have to work out for myself.”
Blake pulled out a chair for Allie. “Been where you are. It’s miserable. Don’t want to go back there. Let’s have some supper. Things always look better with a full stomach.”
“You got that right and I’m starving,” Toby said with a nod, avoiding what he couldn’t come to terms with…not yet.
Roast, simmered all day with potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker, was one of Lizzy’s favorite meals. Katy had also made one of her famous sheet cakes for dessert to top off the meal. When they sat down to eat, Lizzy’s urge to bare her soul to her mother was almost more than she could stand. But how did a daughter describe how hot those sexy nights were without burning herself up in embarrassment?
“Janie and Trudy and I are planning a little trip this next weekend,” Katy said. “We’re going to fly out of Dallas on Friday night to Las Vegas and we’ll come home Sunday evening. Sharlene is going to mind the store for me on Saturday.”
“Good for you.”
“It still feels strange, going places. Even up to Wichita Falls to the movies with Janie and Trudy. Your dad and I were tied down to the businesses all our lives, and then after he died, your grandmother needed us. I would have done things different if I had them to do over again. We would have taken vacations with you girls even if it was only short ones to the beach,” Katy said.
“We had lots of vacations, Mama. Don’t tell me your mind is slipping like Granny’s. They may have only lasted a day, but Sunday was family day. Remember all those summer days we spent at the lake on Sunday afternoons or how about Christmas when we all went together to stomp around in the mesquite looking for the right tree to drag home? We had fifty-two of those days a year. Do you realize that’s more than a six-week vacation if you stacked them all up together?”
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